Pages

Friday, May 1, 2009

Those of you who started following this process yesterday with my first post in the series may be saying, "There's got to be more to it than this!" Well, yes and no. Yes from the standpoint that these questions alone will probably not spur sufficient analysis and insight from which to cull a business plan.

However, one of the major stumbling blocks to writing a business plan lies in the actual writing of the plan. That's the reason I've configured the questions I'm asking into printable documents. The physical act of writing down your answers (or typing them in a soft copy; whatever works for you) breaks down the barrier of not getting anything down. There's no guarantee that you will like what you write, or that it will make sense, or that it will make money. I do guarantee, though, that if you write something down, you will have progressed past Square One. That in itself means something.

So let's assume that you've answered the questions from Worksheet #1 about your product or service. No business is viable unless money is changing hands. That means someone must buy your product or service: the Customer. So the next set of questions deals with the most important person in your business, the customer. Ask yourself:

Who is the target user of your product or service?

Why would someone purchase your product or service?

How do you plan to acquire and keep customers?

The worksheet for these questions can be found here. As always, if you'd like some feedback or help once you've answered the questions, feel free to send me your responses at the email address found here.